Though we are more used to driving holidays featuring ferries and sea journeys, there was once a service in Scotland that actually saw family cars being driven onto trains for trips away.
In the days before the extended Motorway network made the country even more accessible to cars, it wouldn't be strange to see families drive their cars up ramps onto special carriages before they boarded the train themselves and headed off to London for a fun trip.
The convenient service not only saved on petrol, it also meant travellers didn't have to clock up over 400 miles in travel time on the roads to start their holidays off.
Way back in the 1960s the first "Motorail" terminal was opened at the Kensington Olympia station in West London and saw motors from the time like Morris Minors, Minis and Rolls Royces being loaded onto carriages parked up at the station.
Not a new thing at the time, British Railways had already established their first car-carrying service called the Car-Sleeper Limited which saw cars and vacationing Scots being transported in luxury from Perth to London.
Rail enthusiast Stuart Valentine outlines the story of Motorail in his excellent blog post explaining that by 1961, a leaflet entitled "Let British Railways Do The Long Drive" advertised a variety of car-sleeper services including two major routes from Scotland to London. These were as follows:
- Perth to London King’s Cross: £21 (driver and car) – £7 10s 0d per passenger (£4 10s 0d for children aged 3 to 14);
- The new defunct Glasgow (St. Enoch) station to London Marylebone: £21 (driver and car) – £7 10s 0d per passenger (£4 10s 0d for children aged 3 to 14);
Other services connected to places in Scotland such as the capital.
Some of the trains were even double-deckers - the open double-deck Cartic-4 vehicle was first used on a Kensington Olympia to Perth Motorail train in June 1966.
To make your journey nice and comfortable, fares on Car-Sleeper Routes included sleeping-car accommodation so you could get a decent night's sleep. In addition to the Car-Sleeper services, there were daytime Day Car-Carrier Service from London King’s Cross to Newcastle Central and Edinburgh to Waverley.
This had connections with the Bergen and Oslo ferries via Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There was also the London Surbiton to Okehampton daytime car carrier service.
At either end of your journey you could stay overnight at one of British Transports lovely old hotels. You could also buy packed meals to eat on some of the trains. If you really wanted to look the part, you could order The Motorail Shoulder Bag for £1.50 from your local Motorail Terminal. Around the equivalent of £21.45.
But sadly as motorways improved across the UK and rail costs escalated, many of the services began operating at a loss.
Also as high speed train services improved it became easier for passengers to simply park up at a station, catch a fast train and then hire a car at the other end.
But believe it or not, right up until 1995 you could still drive onto the Motorail service from London to Stirling, although it was withdrawn later that year.
It's hard to imagine now such an environmentally aware, convenient and comfortable way of getting your car and yourself from A to B.
Not surprisingly in this car-clogged day and age there have been strong calls to bring back Motorail services to ease the burden on our roads and at our rail stations.
Did you travel on the Motorail services? Please tell us about it by emailing sean.murphy@reachplc.com
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